New Shoes..

Starting a new year feels a bit like getting a new pair of shoes, shiny and new, no scuff marks, potential, no smell, you want to wear them with every outfit….  You look back at that old pair of worn in, slightly grubby last years pair and forget about the blisters, the hole in the sole, they were lovely, but now you’ve got a new shiny pair…

We’ve just arrived back from a week down at the beach house,  it was dreadfully hot and then raining, we still enjoyed some time out, swimming in the ocean, lazing in the hammock, afternoon siesta’s, iced coffee’s, cooked breakfast and a little shopping! Now to deal with the mountains of washing that follows a week at the beach…

While wandering the local shops, a lovely treasure trove of little gems to ooh and ahh over, I spied this lovely Missy Mao Mao bag, hhhmmmm, how can I justify another bag, no must walk away I told myself, until today when I let the family go for a walk down the pier and I went to buy bread…the shop is on the way to the bakery….I just had to have one last look…the rest as they say is history, so now I have a new bag and a new year.  You must check out Marilyn’s blog and website, she has many lovely bags to drool over.



This is one for the dog lovers out there, our DS received a camera for Christmas, we now have a few hundred photos of our dog Lucy, I thought this one was cute :)

Break in transmission as I have a lovely chat to Janellybelly in Perth, can’t get used to them being 3 hours behind at the moment.  Love you precious friend.  Speaking of precious friends I’m having morning tea with Katherine tomorrow, time to plan a few more sewing weekends ;)

Enjoy the exciting potential of the year ahead, watch out for the blisters and enjoy the special people in your life who will lovingly supply the Band-Aids.
Love

Happy Christmas to you & to you & to you…

It’s officially Christmas day in the Eastern States of Australia, so I thought I’d wish you all a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS on behalf of the Sewing Sisters. Thank you all for visiting our blog & giving your encouraging & beautiful comments about our various crafty endeavors.

With Love and Many Blessings

Janelle, Kylie and Katherine xxx

And the Christmas Goodies go to:

Only two more sleeps! We have had a lovely time staying in pyjamas in the morning and eating fresh lunches (with no lunchboxes needed!). It’s great to be on holidays. I finished my table runner in time. It was cut out and partly sewn for last Christmas, but just not big enough. Our table is 3m long when fully extended, so the new length is much better. It was hot day today and the tulips I bought this afternoon were tightly closed at 3.30pm. I hope they last until tomorrow night!

Now for the Christmas goodies. I have discovered the random number generator. Sorry I was planning on a creative cut and children pick approach, but the printer is upstairs, children are in bed and I am tired… don’t know why!?! So the winners are…

suzitee said...

Your Christmas creating is so inspiring Katherine...well done! I love those birds especially. I have mentioned your giveaway on my blog...the more chances the better, I'm thinking :)
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and all the best for 2010 xxxx

December 20, 2009 5:06 PM

Bron said...

Hey thanks for sharing all your craftiness this year .Have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

December 21, 2009 2:39 PM

tassierobyn said...

I have loved reading and seeing all of your creations throughout the year. I absolutely love the birds they are beautiful. Keep up the good work Katherine, Janelle, and Kylie in 2010. Merry Christmas to you all.

December 21, 2009 11:21 AM

Well done girls! Please let us know your snail mail addresses so we can send you your goodies. Thanks and have a wonderful Christmas as you celebrate with family and friends!

Katherine

We wish you a merry Christmas!

Christmas wreath is hung – will add to it next year as time got away from me…
Life has been a crazy and blogging has moved down the list of priorities a little. We’ve just had the last day of school for quite a long time and I’m very excited! No more school lunchboxes to make for at least 6 weeks!

What has been going on?

I survived the last minute baking… for a market that my 9 year old son’s school class were running. He came home, “Mum we need more things to sell tomorrow, so can you make some things… please”. So we then sat down and made 15 little angel decorations from left over wool batting and baked 20 gingerbread. The things we do for our children.

Next it was time to make gifts for all the gorgeous women who come to my sewing group on a Tuesday. I decided on some Christmas themed pin cushions.

Although red and green, I chose fabrics that weren’t too Christmassy. After all one needs to sew every day of the week and year. They were well received and I have two left for gifting to others.

Last week was the Carols in the park which meant we could all stop and focus on Christmas TOGETHER. It was a lovely night and it didn’t rain!! Here are my very tired Cherubs proudly displaying their candles!



And an even more tired cherub who had to be content with a battery operated tea light candle!!
 

I am very excited about my latest project which I got from here.  It’s an advent calendar with a Christmas Tree made from felt with little felt birds in all different shapes and sizes to pin on the tree. The birds are absolutely gorgeous...

 

I’ve made ten already and I’m absolutely hooked. My two oldest children made some to give to their teachers too.

 

Speaking of giving - 

IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!! It’s a MERRY CHRISTMAS from Threads of Friendship. We have three little Christmas packages to send. One will be a Christmas package from me with pin cushion, felt bird ornaments and other bits and pieces. Second will be one of Janelle’s gorgeous bags made with Michael Miller’s fabric “China Doll” :


 

AND the third giveaway will be a beautiful covered notebook made by Kylie… no photo, but will surely add a smile to your Christmas.

Leave a comment on this post and we’ll put your name into the draw for our goodies, mention the giveaway on your own blog and get 5 more entries. We’ll draw the names on the 23rd. You won’t get the parcels by Christmas but you will know by Christmas if you’re one of the lucky winners.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Happy Stitching to your all,

Katherine

A little bit of this, that & the other…

Kay and I had another successful, and extremely hot (37 degrees C), market yesterday. The temperature didn't stop Christmas shoppers from coming out & stocking up. These were the bags I’d made for this market, I included a few more Summery designs. I now have some ready made presents for teachers gifts, 1 more Pay It Forward gift (thanks for being so patient Dee!), and a GIVEAWAY gift.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to be making 50 library bags, with my friend Jenny (aka JennyWren) for a Playgroup end of year present. Well, they all have new homes now, Santa gave them out at the Playgroup end of year Christmas parties this week. Here are some gorgeous wee munchkins with their library bags. A HUGE THANK YOU to JennyWren! I absolutely couldn’t have made them without you & your precious family – Amy (cord threader), Matthew (bag turn right side outerer), & Georgia (stacker).

BTW Santa arrived on a scooter, and doesn't he wear very trendy shoes!!!

Just to finish off, I thought I’d show you a few of my new favourite Christmas tree ornaments that I picked up in the post Christmas sales last year.

Now I just need the handbags to match!

Ok, we did mention we would like to have a GIVEAWAY for our 100th blog post and 1st Blogiversary – we are now up to our 115th post and are 139 days late for the Blogiversary :( Anyway, to make up for it we will wrap all these milestones together and have a Christmas GIVEAWAY instead (great idea Katherine!) – details & prizes coming soon. 

With Love

Kylie who?

Hi my name is Kylie, you may remember me?  My New Years Resolution will be to make more time for sewing and me time.  It’s been an interesting journey adjusting to going back to work this year, how does everyone else manage to fit to two together? So I’m here writing a blog post at 6.30 in the morning while eating my cereal and drinking my cup of tea…

Katherine and I had a wonderful weekend away, we sewed our little hearts out.  Just to prove we do it in style we took a photo of Saturday lunch, no 2 minute noodles for us!  We do indulge in plenty of extra curricular eating…..chocolate, licorice, gingerbread covered in chocolate, Christmas cake, fruit toast the list goes on…  This weekend was the first in a loooong time that we didn’t have any little ones with us, we kept listening out for the baby to wake up, but there wasn’t one! I must say, our DH’s are great in supporting our habit and keeping the troops clothed and fed while we are away, it’s always interesting to see what my children are wearing when I arrive home!



I have a very funny story that involves my DH, I am just in the process of establishing whether he reads the blog first before I can share it….this story caused Katherine and I to almost pee our pants on our sewing weekend, let’s just say it involves my DH and a patchwork shop.

I finished my nieces first birthday quilt, pity it was her birthday back in JULY!!! So now it may be her second birthday quilt…



Here’s the wee Princess receiving her certificate for grade 1 ballet exams and an award for most improved, what a star.



Well I’ve a big day ahead, wish me luck, hope you find time for your creative passion.

Aprons Galore

I went to my store Christmas party this afternoon with all the fabulous girls from work. Instead of buying/making each other presents, our manager Suzy gave us 1/2 metre of herringbone calico & a name of a recipient. We were to create an apron for our Secret Apron Swap partner. We gave out the aprons today and they all looked fabulous!

They are going to be displayed in-store at Midland Textile Traders till Christmas Eve if you want to take a closer look. Here are a few close ups of some of the aprons.

My apron made for & modeled by Kay - it has handbag material!

Emma wearing her apron made by Yvonne – look at the lips on that fish.

Me wearing my apron made by Eileen – it has Babushkas on the front.

Kay and I will be at the Inglewood Artisan Markets again this Saturday 12th December from 9am-1pm. If you’re in the area, please drop by and say Hi.

With Love